Текст книги "Open Secrets "

Автор книги: Dayton Ward

Соавторы: Kevin Dilmore
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Текущая страница: 26 (всего у книги 32 страниц)

“Are you afraid to die, Earther?” asked one of the Klingon guards from where they stood near Lorka.

“I’m afraid to die because of simple stupidity,” Xiong countered, reaching for his tricorder and activating it. He held it before the pedestal, unsurprised by the unit’s readings. “Scans aren’t penetrating, but I can at least confirm that it’s made from the same crystalline material as that thing in the box.”

That seemed more than enough for Lorka. “Excellent.” Turning to the guards who had carried the sarcophagus from the other Shedai chamber, she barked another series of commands in her own language. Xiong watched as the Klingons once again exchanged meaningful glances before reaching for the stone container and removing its lid. Taking care not to touch the crystal with any part of their bodies that was not required to lift it, the Klingons raised the oversized object from its resting place and carried it to the column. They paused, looking at each other before casting looks toward Lorka, who snapped another command in Klingonese at them. The guards reacted as though lashed with a whip, moving to the column and setting the crystal sphere into its base.

Xiong heard the distinctive clickan instant before intense white light erupted from the crystal and the column on which it rested, bathing the entire room in its glow. The effect was followed by the Shedai control console flaring to life, its rows of indicators and graphical displays scrolling in rapid fashion across the opaque crystalline surface. A low, constant hum reverberated about the room, and Xiong was sure he felt a vibration playing across his exposed skin. In his hand, his tricorder began emitting a shrill series of signal tones.

“Whatever it is,” he said, “that thing is having one hell of an effect.” He nodded toward the crystal sphere and its pedestal, which now resembled an orb sitting on a scepter and waiting for the hand of the god that might now wield it. “Tasthene, can you access that console?”

By way of reply, the Tholian scurried across the floor until he stood before the now quite active console. He paused, as if to familiarize himself with the scrolling streams of data, all rendered in glyphs and text that so far had defied Xiong’s attempts at translation. Then Tasthene placed his appendages on the console, his body immediately stiffening in response to the new contact. He said something that at first sounded unintelligible to Xiong’s ears, but before he could ask, the Tholian repeated the response.

“I am detecting a host of new pathways into the planetary computer network,” he reported, the long fingers on both hands playing across the obsidian panel. “I am not certain, but from what I can discern, we may well be able to access every subsystem from this location.”

“How is that possible?” Lorka asked, stepping closer and pushing Xiong out of her way. “How are you able to make such a determination?”

“I do not know,” Tasthene responded, and Xiong heard the fear in the Tholian’s voice carried through the translation. “I seem to be guided more by…instinct…than any cognitive function or actual knowledge. I cannot explain it.”

“What about data-storage banks?” Xiong asked. “Are you seeing anything like that?”

Tasthene replied, “I believe so. There are what appear to be vast catalogs with indexes to much larger caches of information. It will take some time to decipher, of course, and there may be some form of data encryption that I am not yet detecting.”

“Incredible,” Xiong said, breathing the word. “Everything we’ve been searching for might be right here. The technology, the history of the Shedai, the key to the meta-genome—it could all be at our fingertips.” Could it really be that simple? After so much prolonged searching, might a single artifact hold the key to everything?

There has to be something more to it.

After a moment, Tasthene’s body jerked, and he emitted a series of agitated chirps. “I am also registering a form of communications signal, broadcasting outward from the planet.”

The graphics displayed on the massive black panel shifted, warbling and dissolving, only to be replaced by a new image coalescing into focus. It took several seconds for Xiong to recognize the new representation as a star map. Thousands of stars littered the picture, shining in a broad spectrum of colors. More Shedai text crawled across the image, accompanied by indicators pointing to what seemed to be hundreds of the stars being depicted.

“What is this?” Lorka asked.

Tasthene replied, “It appears to be a map of the Taurus Reach. I believe the highlighted stars represent systems that at one time fell under Shedai influence. As far as I am able to determine, the signal currently being broadcast is extending in all directions. It is possible that the intent is to connect to other planets with similar technology.”

“The network,” Xiong said, whispering the words and looking up to confirm that Lorka had not heard him. If he correctly understood what he was seeing, the map represented locations of every Conduit on any planet in the Taurus Reach. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of planets appeared to be indicated on the map. By the looks of things, the enigmatic race’s influence was indeed as far-reaching as indicated by the Shedai Apostate, as told to Ensign Theriault.

And here we are,he mused, insects to be crushed under their heel if we keep getting in their way.

Could the sphere be trying to establish contact with the network of Conduits that had gone dormant in the aftermath of the Jinoteur system’s disappearance? He frowned as he turned and once more beheld the crystal, resting on its column and pulsing with light and new life, which he found disconcerting, to say the least. What was the sphere’s purpose? It stood to reason that access points such as this must also be present on the other worlds where Shedai artifacts had been found. Were there other similar spheres to accompany them? If so, why? To what end? Given the abilities the Shedai had commanded, for what possible use might this physical manifestation of their power be needed?

Again, Xiong felt that nonsensical, enveloping sensation of trepidation beginning to wash over him. His pulse racing in his ears, he exchanged looks with Lorka. Despite her normal bravado, he was only somewhat surprised to see that her own expression seemed to mirror his own.

“Remove it!” she shouted, waving to the two guards who had been easing away from the pedestal. At her command, they lunged forward, gripping the sphere in their massive hands and yanking it free of the column. The very instant the separation was made, the control console went dark beneath Tasthene’s hands, and the room was plunged once again into near silence.

Perhaps angry with herself for her outburst, Lorka now seemed to be having difficulty regaining her composure. Did she also sense that all was not as it appeared to be with regard to the crystal?

“We will proceed,” she said after a moment, “but we shall do so without undue haste.” As though for Xiong’s benefit, she added, “Progress is worthless if all we accomplish is destroying this planet.”

Xiong nodded, doing his best to keep his own excitement in check. From the moment Tasthene had reported the signal broadcast, he had begun thinking of its other possible uses.

The trick now, Xiong knew, would be getting an opportunity to test his idea.

49

INTERLUDE

Fools! What have you done?

Despite the vast distance separating her from them, the Shedai Wanderer heard the cries of terror and anguish as an entire civilization died. It came only moments after she detected a sudden, potent surge of power through what remained of the Conduits. It was a familiar sensation, one she had experienced several times, the last while dealing with the Telinaruulwho had enslaved the primitives on the forest-green world. She had been left with no alternative on that occasion, forced to annihilate the planet lest it and the treasures it held fall into the hands of the interlopers. With a thought, she had reduced it to dust.

Somewhere, far away from the lifeless orb the Wanderer was forced to call home if only for a time, another world had succumbed to a similar fate, but by whose hand?

Extending herself across the Void, she sought any sign of her kind—the Apostate, one of the Serrataal,anyone—but found nothing. Had Telinaruuloverreached, their arrogance finally triumphing their insatiable curiosity? It was a possibility, though one the Wanderer could not confirm without traveling yet again, and her strength was far from ready for such a journey.

There was another prospect, of course, that the native inhabitants of a world controlled uncounted generations ago by the Shedai had stumbled on technology they did not understand and could not control. It had happened on other, isolated occasions, long ago, when Shedai rule was new to this part of the galaxy. Some worlds had resisted or openly rebelled, and in those few instances, those Telinaruulalso had paid for their insolence, their destruction serving as an example to others who would reject destiny.

How far we have fallen.

The Shedai would return to their former grandeur; of that the Wanderer was certain. What continued to concern her was how far the Telinaruulhad advanced while she and her people had lolled in slumber. If and when the Enumerated Ones returned, what would they face? A galaxy waiting for guidance and harmony or adversaries who long ago had forgotten what it meant to live under the all-encompassing wisdom of the Shedai?

Another rush of power pushed itself through the compromised Conduits, and the Wanderer felt it touch her consciousness, unsure what she was sensing. It was not nearly as formidable as other Voices she had encountered, but there was an incontestable, unsettling quality to the pulse unlike anything she had ever experienced. Its raw, brutal aura seemed to reach out to seize her consciousness, and in that instant, the Shedai Wanderer was afraid.

What is this?The question drifted into the Void, nearly drowned out in the face of the awesome entity that now commanded her attention. Was this some new enemy? The Wanderer had no answer, though on some level of which she was only fleetingly aware, she perceived other facets of this new presence—something old, something ancient, something angry. Perhaps it was some long-forgotten rival to the Shedai, swept from history by apathy and shortsightedness and now returned to seek some form of retribution.

Despite the discomfort she felt in the face of this mysterious new Voice, the Wanderer still was able to comprehend some aspects of the song it sang. There was a rough, unpracticed rhythm to the pulse she felt, indicating unfamiliarity, even hesitancy. It suggested something the Wanderer had been afraid of since rising from her own long sleep: the Telinaruulmight have found a way to interact with Shedai technology.

No,she decided. It cannot be possible.

Extending herself into the vast gulf of space, the Wanderer searched for the source of the Voice. Even this escalated her sensations of dread and confusion, as though her very actions were being turned back on her. Never before had she faced such primitive, base emotion channeling through the Void. This was different from the obsession demonstrated by the Apostate or even her own drive and determination to see the Enumerated Ones returned. This was altogether different. This new Voice appeared driven by a single, unwavering purpose.

Fear. Absolute, merciless terror.

As abruptly as it had appeared, the Voice was gone. Nevertheless, its residual presence remained, taunting the Wanderer.

This could not go unanswered.

50

For perhaps the thousandth time, Carol Marcus stared at her computer monitor, upon which was displayed a cross-section of the Taurus Meta-Genome. Her eyes traced over every detail, savoring the wealth of information that promised so much and yet seemed determined to defy every effort to understand it. In the three years that had passed since its initial discovery, the meta-genome remained largely an enigma. Its matrix consisted of several million base pairs of biochemical information and featured molecules made of elements unknown to current science.

Starfleet geneticists had taken little time to determine that the genome was of artificial design and that only the smallest portion of it was devoted to the creation of living organisms. What remained unexplained was the purpose of the rest of the complex genetic segments. Though there had been some limited success deciphering fragments of the meta-genome, true understanding remained elusive.

Irritating little bastard, aren’t you?

Marcus recalled the excitement she had felt upon first reading the voluminous information pertaining to the genome, collected since Starfleet’s first forays into the Taurus Reach. The encounters with the Shedai by the crew of the Sagittariuson Jinoteur IV had confirmed the suspicions she harbored from that first day: the mega-genome, if ever it could be translated and understood, was the key to uncounted medical and other scientific advances that until now had largely resided in the worlds of fiction. Reading the report from the captain of the Sagittarius,detailing the astounding discoveries made by the vessel’s chief medical officer, Marcus believed that the doctor’s findings were but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Healing injuries, repairing damaged or lost organs and limbs, perhaps even replacing them with organic rather than biomechanical substitutes? Fascinating, to be sure, but Marcus had been envisioning scenarios on an even grander scale. The Jinoteur system had been artificially created, as far as all sensor readings could determine, with the meta-genome as its catalyst and with every planet and moon and even the star itself infused with the unique, peculiar energy waveform the Shedai were able to summon and control. Based on the age of the system, the Shedai had possessed this power for at least five hundred thousand years and likely far longer. If the power to create planets and the stars that sustained them could be understood, harnessed, and employed with due care, concerns stemming from population overages and resource shortages would become as quaint as the notion of suffering from simple ailments such as influenza or cancer.

It’s all here, at our fingertips,Marcus mused as she studied the image. It wants to tell us everything; we simply don’t understand what it’s trying to say. Ming, I really wish you were here to help me with this.

As quickly as it had blossomed, her excitement at what she was seeing began to fade. It was difficult to maintain such enthusiasm these days, and Marcus still felt pangs of grief whenever her thoughts turned to Xiong. His conspicuous absence, both from the Vault and from anything having to do with the covert facility’s primary mission, continued to be felt by the rest of the staff. In many ways that Marcus had only just begun to understand, Ming Xiong was the heart of his project. The rest of the team fed off his passion, his unbridled zest for learning everything the Taurus Reach had to offer. Now that he was gone, a pall had fallen over the entire effort, which already was showing signs of distraction and even disenchantment once the true nature of what they sought had become known.

There was also the guilt, from which Marcus had been unable to shake or absolve herself. It emanated from the knowledge that she had lobbied so hard for Xiong to be sent on the mission that had gotten him killed or perhaps captured by the Klingons, which might well be a fate worse than death. Admiral Nogura did not see it that way, but she knew from experience that the station commander was doing what all effective leaders did: accepting the responsibility, for better or worse, arising from decisions made even at the behest of others. While she could admire Nogura’s unflagging devotion to duty, she did not think it fair for him to take the blame for acting in good faith based on what should have been sound counsel from a trusted advisor.

You let ambition get in the way of prudence,she chided herself. Again. What the hell kind of scientist does that?Glancing at the wall to the left of her desk, she saw the picture mounted there in an antique wooden frame, depicting her and her son, David, smiling for the photographer. What the hell kind of parent does that?How, then, in years to come, when he was old enough to ask her about the work she did, would she justify her impulsiveness, well intentioned though it might have been?

She had taken great pains to present to David the virtue of patience and considering all of the angles of a problem and the ramifications of possible solutions before taking any kind of action. The boy’s father, while intelligent, could also be stubborn and impulsive, sometimes choosing a less-than-ideal course of action based on incomplete understanding of a situation. While instinct and even luck had sometimes aided him by filling in the gaps resulting from such an approach, Marcus knew that it was not the wisest manner in which to resolve an issue. She feared the day would come when he was wrong. Likewise, she did not want David mimicking that behavior, especially at such an early age. Would he understand and use that knowledge as he grew older to avoid making similar mistakes of his own?

The beeping of her desktop intercom drew her attention, and she reached for the control. “Marcus here.”

“Dr. Marcus, this is Dr. Gek,”said the voice of Varech jav Gek, a civilian Tellarite scientist assigned to the Vault. “We’ve got something out here that I think you’re going to want to see.”

“What is it?” she asked, reaching up to rub her eyes, which felt as if they were being polished with sandpaper.

Gek replied, “It’s easier if we just show you, Doctor.”

Marcus sighed in minor annoyance and said, “On my way.”

She exited her office and moved toward the Vault’s central laboratory workspace. Glancing toward a wall chronometer, she realized that this was the time normally scheduled for the current shift’s meal break, so the area was largely deserted. Dr. Gek appeared to have the run of the place, moving between workstations with the speed and agility of someone half his size. The Tellarite was dressed in a dark blue jumpsuit typical of a member of the Vault team, over which he wore a standard-issue white lab coat. Standing to one side of Gek’s worktable was Nezrene, working again with the piece of Shedai technology brought back from Erilon. One of the Tholian’s appendages rested on the section of polished onyx, which had been configured such that the energy it received and any electronic impulses it generated were recorded by the Vault’s self-contained main computer. Marcus saw that the console was active, flashing its streams of indecipherable text and graphics.

Upon seeing her, Gek smiled, his entire face seeming to expand. “Dr. Marcus, I think we’ve made an interesting discovery.” Unlike most Tellarites she had encountered in her travels, Gek was almost insufferably jovial. His knowledge and expertise were almost as formidable as his unrestrained exuberance, which could become annoying at times. She had tried to talk to the doctor about his behavior once or twice but had finally relented upon realizing that Gek’s resilient good cheer was a good counterbalance to the rest of the team’s notable melancholy.

Reaching the work area, Marcus crossed her arms as she regarded Gek. “Something with the Shedai artifact?”

The Tellarite nodded, his excitement such that Marcus worried that his head might just separate from his neck. “Indeed. We believe this equipment has picked up a signal broadcast from a similar device.”

Marcus blinked several times as she processed that statement. Feeling her pulse quicken, she stepped closer. “Are you serious?”

“Absolutely,” he replied, motioning for her to step closer to one of the lab’s computer workstations. “It’s nothing that was aimed at us. At least, I don’t think it was. Rather, it seems to have been an omnidirectional signal, lasting twenty-seven-point-four seconds. The computer’s working on plotting its origin point, but according to Nezrene, it’s definitely Shedai.”

Turning to the Tholian, Marcus asked, “You’re sure of this?”

Nezrene emitted a warbled string of animated chitters, after which the translation device in her environment suit said, “Yes, Doctor. This equipment reacted to the signal and attempted to generate what I believe to be a preprogrammed response to receiving contact. Naturally, it was unable to do so, as it is not tied into any sort of communications equipment but only a passive feed from the station’s sensor array.”

“Do you have any idea what the signal is trying to accomplish?” Marcus asked.

The Tholian replied, “I believe it is a form of hailing message, designed to attract the attention of Conduits on other Shedai worlds. Since the Conduits remain inactive, it is unlikely that the location originating the broadcast will receive a reply.”

“What about the individual Shedai that are supposedly out there?” Marcus asked, remembering what she had read from Ensign Theriault’s report of the Jinoteur incident. “Isn’t it possible that they might pick up on this, too?”

After a moment, Nezrene said, “It is very possible, Doctor, but their ability to respond would depend on whatever resources they have available to them. Without the Conduits, such resources would be extremely limited.”

Yeah, but it’s not as though the Shedai are weaklings, even without resources,Marcus mused.

Gek’s computer terminal beeped, and when the Tellarite turned to inspect it, Marcus saw the look of satisfaction on his face. “The computer’s determined the signal’s origin point,” he said, reaching for the workstation and entering a series of commands. In response to his query, the terminal’s monitor shifted to an image of a star map, and Gek pointed to it. “It looks to have originated in the Mirdonyae system. Based on the distance, that signal was first broadcast more than three weeks ago.”

“What do we know about that system?” Marcus asked. “Other than that it appears to be yet another world that interested the Shedai for one reason or another?”

Gek shook his head. “Almost nothing. It’s in a sector of the Taurus Reach we’ve not yet explored, but it’s close to areas where the Klingons have been traveling.”

That would make sense, Marcus decided. The Klingons were conducting their own investigations into the Shedai, but their efforts were motivated by the desire to obtain weapons or some other artifact that might give them a military advantage over their enemies. They had completely bypassed any constructive uses for the ancient Shedai technology, and as far as Starfleet Intelligence was able to determine, the empire knew nothing of the meta-genome or any of the awesome potential it carried.

“What else can you tell me about the signal itself?” Marcus asked. “Any idea what it might be trying to say?”

Nezrene replied, “Based on everything we know or have been able to translate, it appears to be nothing more than a simple hail. However, we have detected another element embedded in the signal, but it seems to have no relation to the signal itself.”

Frowning, Marcus reached up to rub her chin. “Another element, like a header or leading sequence or perhaps an encryption key?”

“No,” Gek said. “It’s wholly separate from the main signal and looks as though it was deliberately implanted in such a manner as to suggest that whoever put it there was trying to hide it. They did a pretty good job of it, too. Only when I compared it to similar transmissions made by our people on Erilon did I pick up the difference.” He reached once more for his computer. “I’ve isolated the signal. Listen.”

He touched a control to initiate a playback, and Marcus listened as a long tone was emitted from the terminal’s audio ports. It stopped abruptly, then was followed by a series of similar tones of varying duration. A gap of silence followed this beat, and when a fifth tone was played, Marcus realized that she was hearing the four tones playing in a loop.

“That’s the signal for the entire twenty-seven seconds,” Gek explained. “The whole thing repeats four times during that loop. I was just about to ask the computer to analyze it.”

Marcus nodded. “Do it.” She watched as Gek entered the necessary commands, after which only a few seconds passed before the computer beeped.

“That was fast,” Gek said, frowning as he leaned closer to the screen. Then his eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, my.”

“What is it?”

Clearing his throat, Gek turned to her. “According to the computer, there are several possibilities, but the first one is the most intriguing. It’s saying that the tones may be letters from something called Morse code, a primitive signaling scheme developed centuries ago on Earth. The code uses differing sequences of long and short sound bursts to represent letters and numbers, and the computer says that the string we’re hearing translates in Morse code to the letters ‘M’ and ‘X.’ How does an ancient code from Earth wind up in a…” The words faded even as the Tellarites eye’s widened, at the same moment as Marcus felt her jaw go slack.

Oh, my God.

“MX,” she repeated. “Ming Xiong.”